SJX Watches
Up Close: Purnell Escape II Double Tourbillon
Given that the tourbillon was invented for the pocket watch, adapting Abraham-Louis Breguet’s invention for the wristwatch opened the floodgate for tourbillon innovations in the beginning of the 21st century – the golden age of the tourbillon, perhaps technically but surely commercially. In fact, many watchmakers have gone far beyond the traditional concept of a tourbillon since English watchmaker Anthony G. Randall invented the double-axis tourbillon in 1978. But as the years passed, tourbillons evolved into elaborate constructions seemingly just for the sake of visual complexity. And there have been so many of them. For this reason, exotic tourbillons now seem dated, with sophisticated or truly interesting technical solutions being hard to come by. Potter and Purnell But the latest development in tourbillons is one of the most intriguing of recent times: maximising the visual effect of a tourbillon regulator not just by multiplying the axes of rotation, but speeding them up with the use of a specialised escapement invented two centuries ago by Albert H. Potter, a highly regarded American watchmaker based Geneva. The full potential of the Potter escapement was recently realised when it was combined with a carrousel outer cage in the MB&F; LM Thunderdome, the world’s fastest rotating triple-axis tourbillon. But the concept was first applied, arguably in a more elaborate manner, in the Spherion tourbillon of Purnell – which was developed by the same watchmaker behin...
